What is Digg?326 Comments
- earls, on 10/10/2007, -51/+158More power to you, this is absolutely disgusting and I was infuriated since the day I heard about the situation. Easily the WORST and STUPIDEST move BBC has made while bringing their content online. No only are the consumer screwed, little do they know so is BBC. I thought I found something special in BBC but this ONE thing completely reverses any positive notions I had about them.
And that goes for ANY company that makes ANY pact with Microsoft. - sundancekid503, on 10/10/2007, -11/+80"And that goes for ANY company that makes ANY pact with Microsoft."
So I guess you hate digg too then? - PacketScan, on 10/10/2007, -12/+49DRM is dead.
- mcmlxxii, on 10/10/2007, -7/+37This is about freedom of choice. We (in the UK) all pay for the BBC, it belongs to us. The BBC decided it would make it's iPlayer work only with Windows XP AND Internet Explorer. It simply isn't good enough for a publicly owned company to dictate which OS and browser you must use to view content for which you have already footed the bill. It is almost exactly the same as the BBC saying that their programs will now only be viewable on Sony televisions.
They have had a long, long time to come up with a better solution. Let's face it, we knew that tv over ip was coming years ago. So enough of the "oh Windows has market share yada yada yada" because the BBC could easily have developed a platform agnostic solution of their own. - Azimuth1, on 10/10/2007, -39/+67Exaggerate much?
90% of people use Windows. How exactly is that screwing the consumer? Throw in the fact that they've promised to support Mac OS and other operating systems in the future, and it's clear that you're getting all worked up over absolutely nothing.
Also note that if you don't live in Britain it won't be available to you anyway. - bieber, on 10/10/2007, -5/+31That would be a really good point, were it not for the fact that you're completely wrong. Windows Media DRM is anything _but_ free and open, regardless of the "openness" of the platform they enforce it on; not only can you not implement it in an open way, you can't implement it AT ALL without Windows. Obviously, they're not going to use free software for their DRM, because then users would be free to remove it, and their goal here is to keep users from doing what they actually want to do.
Or, to put it more succinctly, you're just plain full of *****. - Redsblog, on 10/10/2007, -20/+45BBC iPlayer doesn't even support Vista yet, it's not some conspiracy to make people buy Windows it's just making the product available quickly to the majority of people. Eventually OS X (and possibly Linux) WILL be supported, just not right away, the software is still in Beta anyway!
- MWeather, on 10/10/2007, -7/+27The decision to switch to Microsoft certainly lowered my opinion of Digg.
- OBKenobi, on 10/10/2007, -15/+35I suspect this all has to do with lobbying by Microsoft. Are there any laws in Britain about foreign companies bribing public officials?
- dbzer0, on 10/10/2007, -13/+33three words: Embrace, expand, extinguish.
That's how MS treats open standards.
Now that this is their own standard, nothing is stopping them from "enhancing" it in the future to run better in Windows - desqjockey, on 10/10/2007, -7/+26Wow, they just keep making tech mistakes. I write them to protest having to use Realplayer to listen to radio one every time I install Realplayer on a new computer for only that purpose.
.MP3 streaming, is that so hard? - eternal, on 10/10/2007, -19/+37I don't want to have to install Siverlight just to watch BBC programming.
- cosulliv755, on 10/10/2007, -10/+28Its very depressing as a Linux user to sit back and watch sources of media on the web dry up as support for open standards, and platform independent solutions for media distribution disappear. Its even harder to watch what used to be a bastion of fair and unbiased reporting cow tow to the money men from Microsoft. Good lord people what is happening to the BBC !!
- dgh1973, on 10/10/2007, -10/+27iPlayer??
That name won't last... - dhughes, on 10/10/2007, -2/+18 It's a public institution paid for by the TV tax they have, anything shown on the BBC shouldn't be burdened by DRM or any other type of copy protection. All people should be able to access any type of media on the BBC website whether it's video, audio or the website itself with any browser compliant with web standards (which MS refuses to adhere to).
- bieber, on 10/10/2007, -11/+27You talk like this is only an issue because it's Windows only. Even if you're on Windows, and you can view the footage, you _still_ have to deal with the DRM.
- bieber, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16As much as I would love to agree with you, the point of this article seems to be that DRM is, in fact, very much not dead :(
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -6/+18for one.. you cannot transfer the content to your portable player to watch at a later time.. lets say like the daily commute. Maybe yes if you have a zune or any drm supported player. But a hassle nevertheless.
- da5id, on 10/10/2007, -7/+18Great. RealPlayer is malware!
- bieber, on 10/10/2007, -4/+15Yes, because all Windows users enjoy and embrace having their media shackled to their computer by DRM. Spot on there, you are.
- Phocion55, on 10/10/2007, -4/+14So it's either something that 90% of the people can use or 10% of the people can use?
What about something that 100% of people can use? That WOULD be the first and obvious choice.............. - mephitix, on 10/10/2007, -18/+28I love how everyone who mentions that Silverlight is cross platform is getting dug down, and all the whiners/bitchers/MS-bashers are completely ignoring the fact. This story is just FUD in itself and a lie, but hey, what do you guys care; I'll still get dug down anyway.
- jejones, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10I'd rather kids in school learn the principles of computing, so that when the UI du jour changes--which it certainly will--they can adapt. You seem to have education confused with something else.
- Langford, on 10/10/2007, -5/+13Do you remember IE5 for Unix? How about IE5 for Mac? It always starts with promises of interoperability, then once they have the servers in place they stop support for competing platforms.
- sundancekid503, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9No, the BBC's player name is the iPlayer. BBC picked the name, not Microsoft. Simmer down.
- Kamaji, on 10/10/2007, -7/+15Uhh, the fact that BBC coverage exists on many NPR stations is proof to the contrary -- that many Americans do care about the BBC.
Also - why would there be a BBC America cable station if we don't give a ***** about the BBC? explain that.
I for one do give a *****. - MWeather, on 10/10/2007, -4/+11Would your opinion be the same if they used a Flash-based video player like Youtube?
- alucinor, on 10/10/2007, -11/+18The UK and Microsoft have quite a relationship ... they chose to standardize their national records and library on OOXML alone, they have chosen to standardize their warship and submarine command systems on Windows 2000, they squash study after study about how open source could save their education system millions of $$$ (or fire whomever is in charge of the study, heheh) and they knighted Billy G. But this is a socialist country that pretty much operates on de facto everything, so going all Microsoft suits.
- losimagic, on 10/10/2007, -2/+9Limit it to the UK? Maybe that's because the BBC is publicly funded, UK residents need a license to watch TV - the fee for the license goes to the BBC
- generalloy, on 10/10/2007, -5/+12Please point me to the MS Silverlight plugin for Linux.
Sure, it's "Cross-platform" in MS speak, as in it works in Firefox on Windows, and maybe Mac one day. And yes, they drop support (ActiveX was supposedly cross-platform too), embrace and extend, as others have said. Windows makes them too much money to support other platforms. - FredFredrickson, on 10/10/2007, -10/+17Um... why are you guys yelling about this? You can only use Windows to see programming online for the BBC? No freedom of choice? Where the hell were you when your precious iPhone came out, and they decided to strike a deal up with AT&T / Cingular for 2-3 years? Picking and choosing what you get mad about is *****, when every company engages in these practices, both loved and hated by you.
- jedikv, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Thats impossible.....er unpossible
- FredFredrickson, on 10/10/2007, -3/+9"The ***** in Redmond cannot live a single day without ripping something from Apple"
Wow... get a clue. - rohanch, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7They don't. Because no such technology could be easily implemented with the current broadcast system, and therefore the rights owners allow them to broadcast over the air without DRM.
What rights owners do not allow is non-DRM on the internet. However, for programmes made entirely with BBC property, they do have a choice about the use of DRM. I agree in that case and think the use of DRM is stupid and unjustified. When they broadcast programmes on TV, I can record them and keep the recordings as long as I like, so why can't I do that for internet downloads? - Chazx, on 10/10/2007, -4/+10***** you. Do you pay for the BBC? No. Do you watch ads shown on BBC channels? No, they don't exist, because here in the UK, WE pay the £135.50 every year for the privilege to watch BBC channels. You pay jack *****. Any BBC you see is a present from us, we're paying for it. So shut the ***** up and stop whining.
- PseudoKnight, on 10/10/2007, -13/+19What's the problem? They simply decided to support the OS with the largest user base first. This is WAY overblown.
- Phocion55, on 10/10/2007, -16/+22I love how 99% of the people defending BBC and Microsoft here can also be found cursing DRM on other Digg articles.
Gotta love the hypocrisy - manifestdata, on 10/10/2007, -8/+14Crimson, do not prove the Digg sheep wrong or thou shall be buried, even if you are right.
- yenster, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Well, well! Oddly enough: http://dirac.sourceforge.net/overview.html
The BBC's R&D crew has released an open source, rather innovative codec (according to some more technically-oriented articles I've read about it). WHY they don't release their own material encoded with Dirac and playable on any Dirac-capable media player is completely beyond me. I'm pretty sure I've got the codec installed and usable in Mplayer. Must be that they're needing a DRM mechanism, although I thought I read that their content was to be essentially public domain. - Bloc, on 10/10/2007, -4/+10yeah because i heard apple trademarked every word with the letter 'i' before it.
- mcmlxxii, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Can you ask Kevin to free up <em> then?
- rodgy, on 10/10/2007, -6/+12Yeah this is priceless, it's not even Vista-only, it's XP-only. So all those who use Vista, Win98, Win2k, Linux and OS X, no BBC 4U!
- brownb2, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7The only problem with that argument is that the kids only learn one skill and thus keep MS in power for generations, because they think exactly the same thing when they grow up as they don't know any better or have experience of anything else. Just because Windows does the job doesn't mean it's the best tool.
- Langford, on 10/10/2007, -8/+13Do you remember Internet Explorer for Unix? Where is it now? That is the fate of Silverlight in the future. Microsoft knows it, and everyone with experience knows it. This is history repeating.
- generalloy, on 10/10/2007, -6/+11DRM doesn't work. BBC doesn't use DRM in their terrestrial broadcasts. There are much better ways to use content restriction, eg., restrict via IP, password, etc
It's MS likely giving them kickbacks for this decision.
BTW, you know that the BBC is funded by these people who are now __unable to utitlize___ what they paid for? If they buy a TV, they have to pay a tax to the BBC. - MWeather, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6In the US it is. We often forget other countries have more fair use freedoms than we do.
- Gargoyle, on 10/10/2007, -22/+27Bitch, moan, whine...
So the BBC chose to launch a new service compatible with 90% of computer users first. And on more than one occasion they have stated that other platforms including OSX and Linux are very high on the list of priorities.
Now if we were all looking for things to whine about, we could start with your blog, which has already died under the digg load! Shame! My heart bleeds for you! - halavais, on 10/10/2007, -3/+8Absolutely wrong. As a teacher, when I want to make fair use of a clip from the BBC (as is my right, granted by over a century of case law), the DRM won't let me.
What you meant to say is that it's seemless and transparent as long as you use the media only in the way MS wants you to use it. That's not the same thing as "legally." - tizz66, on 10/10/2007, -7/+11DRM on music I pay for to own = sucks.
DRM on TV programmes that have been licensed to me for 7 days = whats the problem?
It's either accept DRM on programme rentals, or don't have them at all. The BBC does not own the full rights to the programmes it is sharing so it does not have the ability to say screw DRM. - PaulOwen, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6I don't want to sound cynical but the BBC were corrupted by influence many years ago. This whole issue is about private interest vs. public interest and when the Hutton report and the BBC's bias in favour of their editors' interests became apparent about three years ago, the BBC became a shade of their former selves.
(PS I live less than a mile away from the BBC's HQ and I might even work for them). -
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